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At the YMCA kids can start at a young age and certified instructors can help them progress year after year.

"We want to start as early as two years on up, even 18 months would be a good starting point. We start with the parent-child and we work our way up," Clippard YMCA head swim coach Kim Peters said.

Peters recommended that if your child isn't ready to swim alone to use a flotation device certified by the U.S. Coast Guard. The designation will be clearly marked on any packaging or product.

"Nothing that can be air-filled, the old water wings, you don't want those at all, especially when you go to backyard pools as well," Peters said.

Memorial Day weekend is a traditional time for pools to open and water patrols to hit the Ohio River, but a water death can happen at any time, anywhere.

In April twin girls drowned in a neighbors' swimming pool in Aurora and three weeks ago two young men died while canoeing on the Ohio River, neither was wearing a life preserver.

"You have to have a life preserver on your boat for every occupant of your boat. We actually enforce within 10 feet of the river. You have to have a PFD on and that's for our guys," Cincinnati Fire Department Special Operations Chief Tom Lakamp said.

The Cincinnati Fire Department works with Boone County Water Rescue and Kentucky Fire and Wildlife to keep the Ohio River safe.

All agencies are trained to respond to a water emergency, regardless of the jurisdiction.

"No matter where or who gets the call, everybody is notified and we all respond. Our philosophy was, 'We really don't care what it says on the sides of the boat,' as long as somebody gets to them and gets them out of the water," Lakamp said.

Boone County Water Rescue will be out patrolling the Ohio River this holiday weekend Friday through Monday from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. and every weekend through the boating season.